Egypt

Colonel Nasser became president of Egypt in 1956. In this article from our 1981 archive, Robert Stephens considers how he has been both acclaimed as a nationalist liberator and condemned as a warmonger. What was his influence on the history of the twentieth century?

The anti-government protests in Egypt earlier this year swept through Cairo and Alexandria before measures could be taken to protect antiquities in museums and archaeological sites in those cities and across the country. Yet, argues Jonathan Downs, the impact on Egyptian heritage and the repatriation debate has been a positive one.

Richard Cavendish remembers King Farouk's succession to the throne in Egypt in 1936.

Richard Cavendish remembers when the Mamelukes were massacred in Cairo, on March 1st, 1811.

As a compelling exhibition at the British Museum opens a new window on the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, History Today takes a broad view of Egypt’s history.

Once the classical world’s dominant port, by the early 19th century the city founded by Alexander the Great was seemingly in terminal decline. But the energy and vision of the Ottoman governor Muhammad Ali restored its fortunes and, ultimately, set Egypt on the path to independence, as Philip Mansel explains.

On the Mediterranean at the western edge of the Nile delta stands the most important and enduring of all the many cities founded by Alexander. Though much of its material past has been destroyed or lies underwater, Alexandria’s reputation as the intellectual powerhouse of the Classical world, fusing Greek, Egyptian and Roman culture, lives on, writes Paul Cartledge.

The young Pharaoh has gripped peoples’ imagination and changed lives. Desmond Zwar looks at the career of the man who claimed to have spent seven years living in the tomb, guarding it while Howard Carter examined its contents.

James Exelby unearths the activities of a forgotten British spy whose documents and memoir provide a fascinating insight into the circumstances surrounding the British occupation of Egypt.

Steve Morewood looks at the the rise and fall of British dominance of the Suez Canal in the years 1882 to 1954.

Helen Strudwick, Curator of the Egyptian galleries at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, explains the new refurbishment at the museum and the opportunities it has afforded.

James Waterson introduces the slave warriors of medieval Islam who overthrew their masters, defeated the Mongols and the Crusaders and established a dynasty that lasted three hundred years.

Russell Chamberlin describes the revelations of a recent conference on the archaeology of Cleopatra’s Alexandria.